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The Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers) union attracted 2 million people to the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France during a weekend in May 2010 by transforming it into lush fields bursting with crops. They did it to raise awareness of the agriculture sector but it also demonstrated that we can used our city centres in a different way when we evict the cars. These following pictures are taken from in the middle of the road looking towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Photographs courtesy of Perry Tak

Photographs courtesy of Perry Tak

This is the normal view of the road as a dual 5 lane road full of polluting traffic – notice how inefficiently it is being used – there are actually only a relatively small number of vehicles, and therefor people, dominating a huge area.

We decided to park our car in the most ridiculous way on the Ipswich Waterfront today to learn more about how people would respond to really bad parking. In order to get the effect we wanted we used our own car, parked if really badly and but one of the “STUPID PARKING” leaflets under the windscreen wipers front and rear. We then took a seat outside a coffee shop and waited. We wanted to find out:

How many people will pass?

How many people will walk round the car without noticing anything odd?

How many people will show signs of irritation?

How many will notice the ‘STUPID PARKING’ sticker

How many will stop and talk to us about it.

Our awful parking was totally ignored by about half the people to passed, another 20% noticed something odd and glanced at the leaflet, and the rest were clearly irritated. Two parents with buggies were badly affected and had a great struggle getting by the car and then chatted with us. In order to get a real reaction from the passers by we didn’t immediately confess to the car being ours.

The most amazing reaction to us was when a pedestrian had no reaction at all, those who it seemed to not bother. Does this mean that it happens so much that people have gotten used to it? or do people just not realize that they have the write to act against it.

The free-runners

Whilst filming the car we noticed two guys free-running just a short way away and we thought what a brilliant idea it would be to get them involved, so we invited them over to help and they were more than happy to do so. The videos and pictures below show how we got on.

We came to the conclusion that this spot is used frequently by pedestrians and in the hour we spent filming there it proved to be very successful and we got some great results so this will be definitely be a place to return to in the future.

So the plans for our first public event have changed slightly, instead of Monday morning it will be on Tuesday morning the 18th. The plan is to set up a miniature garden with some bright and colorful flowers to draw attention to a damaged once green public area, the damage brought on by some lazy individuals in their cars. I will post the location on the morn, we would love to have some supporters visit. “Watch this space”.

It’s clear to me that pavement parking is a big problem that is getting worse, and not just in our home town but all over this country. Parking s destructive and dangerous and its drives many of us mad.

So… we are going to do something about it. Pedestrian Liberation will support local people in their campaigns to reclaim their footpaths and we will also press government to act.

Pedestrians are discriminated against

"In contrast to the changes made to every town and city to ease motor transport, walking has been made ever more unpleasant. Pedestrians have been treated with contempt. In a myriad of ways when we walk we are treated with less respect than when we drive". (quote for a cross-party parliamentary select committee report on walking in towns from 2001).

This blog documents how this discrimination works, what laws underpin it and what people are doing to counter it. Please take action and share your experiences in the comments section, on twitter or join our facebook group. Add photos to the Flickr pool. All photographs cc-by-sa 3.0 unless otherwise stated or obvious from the source.